At that time, Emperor Ivan was captured in a tower. He was on the verge of being publicly executed, but with his lieutenants’ help, he succeeded in the rebellion and was crowned emperor. He cut his own brother’s neck and announced that the days of tyrants had passed. That was his first day as the emperor……

  All the problems began there.

  “Emperor Prior never had any intention of ruling through politics.”


  It would have been better if he simply didn’t like politics, but he completely ignored all the problems he had to fix. The subjects had to restore and rebuild the administration that they had destroyed.

  According to Ferdel, if complete negligence could be called tyranny, it was undoubtedly the beginning of another oppressive authoritarian rule.

  The emperor did not handle the empire’s political affairs, so the administrative system was not established for sure, and the government was a mess, while greedy officers ran rampant. The country was swept into chaos. It was possible because Emperor Ivan only cared about sleeping with women and holding parties.

  Emperor Ivan favored a woman named Lady Cicellia, who was said to have been the emperor’s mistress for over two decades.

  “But ironically, her existence was the reason this country still stands. She is criticized as the witch of the century, but she knew how to control the greedy officers. She also knew how to stop a country in chaos from completely falling apart. Lady Cicellia accumulated wealth through Emperor Ivan, and her descendants returned that fortune to the country, which helped rebuild this system.”


  “So she was a necessary evil.”


  “In a way, yes.”


  I thought my dad was the worst leader in history since everyone said he was that sort of tyrant. After learning history, I realized that Caitel was the least oppressive of them all.

  If Caitel seemed better than them, how horrible could they really be?

  “Several policies in place now are those that Lady Cicellia came up with first. It was a difficult era, but she was an amazing lady.”


  Ferdel laughed.

  I was somewhat surprised at how he was praising her so much. It’s rare for Ferdel to honor someone like this.

  She really must have been exceptional.

  Her image of ‘witch’ reminded me of Bao Si, the concubine of the ancient Chinese sovereign King You of Zhou, and Daji who was the favorite consort of King Zhou of Shang.

  But I just shook my head.